



Glass. 
Book. 



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OPEN WINDOWS. 



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Stories bg ^tiss porter. 



CHARITY, SWEET CHARITY. 

FOUNDATIONS ; or, Castles in the Air. 

IN THE MIST. 

OUR SAINTS. 

A SONG AND A SIGH. 

THE STORY OF A FLOWER. 

SUMMER DRIFTWOOD FOR THE WINTER 

FIRE. 
UPLANDS AND LOWLANDS. 
THE WINTER FIRE. 
YEARS THAT ARE TOLD. 

The 10 volumes in a box, $10.00 ; or sold separatel}- at 
$i.co each. 

HONORIA. $1.00. 

A MODERN ST. CHRISTOPHER. $1.25. 

DRIFTINGS FROM MID-OCEAN. $1.25. 



38 West Twenty-third St., New York. 



OPEN WINDOWS 



HEART-TO-HEART DIARY. 



(SERIES ## OF "IN QUIETNESS AND IN 
CONFIDENCE.") 



By ROSE PORTER, 

Author of " Summer Driftwood" ; " Winter Fire "/ ZT/c 




NEW YORK: 
ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 

38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET. 



«*•** 

iv 



Copyright, 1890, by 
Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 



PRESS OF 

EDWARD O. JENKINS' SON, 

NEW YORK. 



X 

J 

-n 

xJ 



of* 



1e 



CONTENTS 



I.— Open Windows, 9 

II.— The Age we Live in, ... 45 

III.— Wilderness Days, .... 63 

IV.— Desert Places 8 5 



OPEN WINDOWS. 



" Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, 

if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and 

©our you out a blessing." 

MalAchi iii. 10. 

Remember : 

"God illumines those who think often of Him, and 
lift theii eyes toward Him." 

JOUBERT. 

"This one thing I do, forgetting those things which 
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which 
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize ol 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

Phil. iii. 13-14. 



OPEN WINDOWS. 



AS children seek flowers when spring 
comes, spreading its mantle of bloom 
over all the land, so let us to-day, dear 

H , go forth and look for the Windows 

that open Heavenward. 

Verily, I think we will find them unveiled 
for faith's eye to scan their farthest reach, 
and our beholdings will be as varied as the 
blossoms that star hill-side and meadow, 
shady nook and sunny field, when April 
glides into May, and May speeds on to 
June. For, truly, words are too narrow to 
span the comforts that come in-flooding 
the soul with light, even at darkest hours, 
in response to the earnest cry : "Thou art 
my lamp, O Lord ; lighten my darkness." 

But this illumining of dark places will 
not come all at once. No, spiritual sight is 
too progressive for that, hence the emblem 

(9) 



10 OPEN WINDOWS. 

of sunrise so often applied to its expanding, 
increasing radiance. You know the way of 
sunrise — first the gray dawn, the break of 
day, and then a kindling glow on the highest 
mountain peaks — a glow that descends in 
ever growing brightness from hill-top to 
hill-top, till at last the remotest lowland 
valley catches a reflection of the glory, and 
all the world is bathed in the radiance of 
God's daily repeated command, " Let there 
be light." This is nature's story, and the 
soul's history repeats it, save for the fact 
that full radiance is not our portion here, 
for that we must wait till earth is exchanged 
for Heaven, for here always there will be 
an horizon-line to shut us in. Nevertheless 
we will seek the windows that are open — 
beginning by the suggestions of comfort 
and support — which in-shine in consolation 
beams for the hour we all must meet — the 
hour when "death comes up into our win- 
dows." 

As we ponder this great mystery — mortal 
death as the birth of immortal life — we will 
use the word in its common acceptation. I 
know there are those who look forward to 
it as a glad prospect, those who long for its 



OPEN WINDOWS. 1 1 

coming, whose faith is so clear shining, 
death is by them anticipated with no more 
dread than " the passing from one room 

into another." But you tell me, dear H , 

you are not one of those thus blessed with a 
" willingness to depart." You tell me you 
fear dying, and I think there is nothing 
wrong in your feeling ; certain I am it is the 
most universal way of regarding departure. 
And it is but natural that the human heart 
should shrink before the profound mystery 
of the silence which no voice has ever yet bro- 
ken — from which none have ever yet come 
back to tell us the way it leads. Yes, it is 
all strange, unknown, and its inevitableness, 
its exceeding vagueness, its exceeding lone- 
liness of familiar companionship, all com- 
bine to fill the heart with trembling awe ; 
and I repeat, surely this is not wrong, for 
nothing in Holy Scripture indicates that 
God condemns it — on the contrary, much 
goes to prove that our Lord Himself re* 
garded it as a crucial test for the timid faith 
of His followers. 

Hence He has richly strewn the pages of 
the Old and New Testaments with promises 
of Divine help, providing a full store of 



12 OPEN WINDOWS. 

dying grace for the dying hour. But we 
need not be discouraged because we cannot 
grasp that grace in advance, for it will 
surely be granted us with the need for it — 
then all will be well ; and what we have 
to do now is " to trust that the love which 
has met the needs of busy life many a time 
with unexpected and surprising adapta- 
tions, will, when the time comes, and the 
necessity is close at hand, give the needed 
grace to die." And now let us gather up 
and meditate on the repeated assurances of 
our Saviour's nearness, which can illumine 
the dying hour with the light of Life Eter- 
nal. Think of His strength-giving prom- 
ises — " Fear not, I will be with thee." " Lo ! 
I am with you alway." You shall be "de- 
livered from the burden of the flesh "; " cor- 
ruption shall put on incorruption "; "mor- 
tality shall put on immortality"; "you 
shall obtain joy and gladness"; "sorrow 
and sighing shall flee away"; and "God 
shall wipe away all tears from your eyes : 
and there shall be no more death, neither 
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be 
any more pain." Tell me, do not these 
thoughts open a window toward Heaven 



OPEN WINDOWS. 13 

— its out-look all peace ? Surely they are 
given to help us oa our way Thitherward, 
and yet, how solemn a thing it is to re- 
member, our thoughts of Heaven are wont 
to correspond to our spiritual life. If you 
look deep into your own heart you will 
know this, and you will have a sight of the 
real Heaven for which you long. " Examine 
that, and it will show you precisely your 
spiritual position, just as the traveller knows 
his latitude by looking at the north star, 
and noting its distance above the horizon. 
What are the aspirations that go up from 
the profound within you? What sort of a 
world would you make for yourself, if you 
could have everything your own way, and 
embody around you your own best imag- 
inations ? Answer this question honestly, 
and your idea of Heaven is defined to you, 
and you will see whether it be carnal and 
selfish, or spiritual and pure." 1 have wan- 
dered from your saying that there are other 
reasons beside the physical dread of dying, 
and the mystery of going out into the un- 
known that make you dread death. You tell 
me, there is the consciousness of sin, not only 
of the great omissions and commissions that, 



1 4 OPEN WINDOWS. 

like darksome caverns, fill so many places 
in the record of your life — but the vast con- 
course, too, of what may be called " lesser 
faults"; ill-temper, wrong thoughts, idle 
dreams, the half-wayness of repentance, the 
little love and praise, little real devotion 
you have rendered your Lord, languid 
prayers, dull meditations — all these voices 
of conscience come flooding your memory, 
and making your heart tremble, for all the 
while you knew the right and yet you chose 
the wrong. 

Yes, dear — and so it is with us all ; hence, 
no wonder the heart fails when we come to 
know our life's book is written full ; the last 
page turned, the last step taken, there is no 
time left to retrace even so much as one 
line, no time for struggle with, and victory 
over temptation, for we must go, just as we 
are. 

But this is only looking at one side ; turn 
to the other and all is changed in a moment 
from darkness to light, from despair to 
hope ; for, there is one thing left we can do — 
we can cling to the Crucified ! Cling so close 
to His cross that in its shadow we will lose 
self and sin, giving all into His care, and He 



OPEN WINDOWS. 15 

is so willing to take it — so willing. Then 

be not faithless, but believing — for neither 
death nor life can separate us from His 
boundless Love. — Oh ! the window that Love 
opens for us — one look through its wide- 
flung curtain reveals enough to take fear 
away ; for it shows us that He, the Christ, 
knows all about dying, knows even the agony 
of feeling the weight of sin ; for though 
He was all sinless, for our sake He carried 
the burden of sin, and thus from us the 
load is taken. He knows, too, all the weari- 
ness and physical weakness and languor of 
dying. He passed through its vagueness 
and mystery that He might say to us, "Fear 
not " — for remember, " When from the Cross 
sounded His Voice, proclaiming, i It is fin- 
ished,' it meant the deepest darkness of 
death was finished for each of His followers. 
Henceforth not one would ever have to pass 
through it alone." Oh, believe this, and "let 
not your heart be troubled, neither let it 
be afraid." 

As for the time and manner of our depart- 
ure, let us seek to have no will of our own 
— it is so much the more peaceful way — and 
about dying, as about suffering, it is true, 



1 6 o:*kn WINDOWS. 

"The law of pain is Love alone, 
The wounding is to heal." 

We can safely trust and leave all with 
Him, who "has appointed a set time" — and 
who will, when that time comes, remember 
us, and be very near us — for "I have graven 
thee on the palms of my hands, saith the 
Lord." 

Faber's hymn, " Wishes about Death," is 
so full, so fragrant with the restful calm, 
the quietness and confidence of leaving all 
to Christ, and yet being true to self in 
natural desire, thinking you may not know 
it, I will copy it for you, verse by verse : 

" I wish to have no wishes left, 
But to leave all to Thee : 
And yet I wish that Thou shouldst wish 
Things that I wish should be. 

" And these two wills I feel within 

When on my death I muse : 

But, Lord, I have a death to die, 

And not a death to choose. 

M Why should I choose ? for in Thy love 
Most surely I descry 
A gentler death than I myself 
Should dare to ask to die. 



OPEN WINDOWS. 17 

M But Thou wilt not disdain to hear 
What these few wishes are 
Which I abandon to Thy love, 
And to Thy wiser care. 

" Triumphant death I would not ask, 
Rather would deprecate : 
For dying souls deceive themselves 
Soonest when most elate. 

11 All graces I would crave to have 
Calmly absorbed in one — 
A perfect sorrow for my sins, 
And duties left undone. 

" I would the light of reason, Lord, 
Up to the last might shine, 
That my own hands might hold my soul 
Until it passed to Thine. 

"And I would pass in silence, Lord, 
No brave words on my lips, 
Lest pride should cloud my soul, and I 
Should die in the eclipse. 

" But when and where, and by what pain, — ■ 
All this is one to me ; 
I only long for such a death 
As most shall honor Thee. 

" Long life dismays me, by the sense 
Of my own weakness scared ; 
And by Thy grace a sudden death 
Need not be unprepared. 



I 8 OPEN WINDOWS. 

11 One wish is hard to be unwished — 
That I at last might die 
Of grief, for having wronged with sin 
Thy spotless Majesty." 

What ! — after all this — do you again tell 
me you fear "because you are a sinner "? — 
Dear, did I not tell you He has bidden us 
leave ourselves with Him ? — and sin is a 
part of self. 

But you say, " the wages of sin is death." 
Yes — but His Love in its fulness of forgive- 
ness and redemption has paid those wages 
for us — it is Love like an ocean ; fathomless 
to any plummet ever yet discovered by the 
wisest man this world has known. Can-you 
not trust that Love ? Can you not believe 
in victory over sin through our Lord Jesus 
Christ ? Try to remember, " He hath over- 
come the sharpness of death, and opened 
the kingdom of Heaven for all believers "; 
thus the question is — not the magnitude of 
your sinfulness — but — do you believe ? — 
" He hath opened the kingdom of Heaven." 
What a window this promise, through which 
comes the in-shining brightness of the Sun 
of Righteousness. 

Think of the "kingdom of Heaven," and 



OPEN WINDOWS. 19 

what it means — and remember, in Christ's 
use of the words the light falls from above 
down on to our daily life, for they are linked 
with a thought of service here below. 

Yes — the kingdom of Heaven belongs to 
now as truly as to the blessed Hereafter. 

You will catch my meaning, if you re- 
peat the Lord's prayer — " Thy will be done, 
.... Thy kingdom come on earth as in 
Heaven" — for this is a petition that asks 
not for flight into the Heaven above, 
but for entrance into Heaven here and 
now — the spiritual Heaven whose realm is 
in the soul, and of which Christ tells us, 
saying — " Verily I say unto you, except ye 
be converted and become as little children, 
ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
Heaven ; whosoever therefore shall humble 
himself as a little child, the same is greatest 
in the kingdom of Heaven. " Hence, what we 
have to seek is child-likeness of spirit, and 
that we may know what that is, windows of 
interpretation are set wide open on every 
side ; dull indeed must we be to miss their 
meaning, and yet we need to be careful lest 
we over-look the difference Scripture so 
plainly notes between childishness and 



20 OPEN WINDOWS. 

child-likeness. You know the character- 
istics of a childish soul — self-confidence, 
selfishness, lack of stability, fretfulness, 
waywardness ; and you know, too, how un- 
like they are to the child-likeness which is 
marked by trustfulness, submission, and the 
sweet simplicity of a heart pure in thought 
and intent. And to have a soul full as a 
garden of flowers with such sweet traits, is 
to have the kingdom of Heaven within, and 
we may have it — no matter how far, accord- 
ing to time's counting of years, we have 
passed beyond the limits of childhood, for 
to souls there is no such thing as old age ; 
return to the true spirit of child-likeness is 
always possible — and by thus returning we 
come into harmony with the law of growth, 

for childhood is a type of growth, 

and then — think of the sequel to all this ! — 
When growth has come to the limit God sets 
for each soul to attain through the disci- 
pline of life, then we pass on to that Higher 
Heaven where the soul's language will ever 
be the child's "Abba, Father." 

For child-likeness does not end here, it is 
so truly a part of the ever abiding " Faith, 
Hope, and Love " which reach on and on be- 

4 



OPEN WINDOWS. 2 1 

yond our power to follow, for "eye hath not 
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered 
into the heart of man to conceive, the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love 
Him." 

All this leads us round again, to the prom- 
ise, " He hath opened the kingdom of Heav- 
en"; but now, we seek not the in-ward, but 
the on-ward looks which take us close to 
the Border-land of the Heavenly Country, 
where there is no more dying. Knowing 
this, surely we need not fear either to let our 
dearest go, or to go ourselves in response 
to the call bidding us leave this world for 
the next — for — He who thus calls is the One 
" who has tasted death for every man " — 
He, whose name is Jesus, and " He shall 
save His people from the power of the 
grave." Remember, He has promised to be 
" the strength of your heart," and " His 
strength is made perfect in weakness." 
Death here is a mere gate leading to Life 
There — for, " Except a corn of wheat fall 
into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; 
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' 
How the emblem truth of that verse is all 
aglow with life — kindling the dying here 



22 OPEN WINDOWS. 

with beams of radiance from the living 
There. And, of these beams of light that 
fall aslant the Hereafter the Bible is so full. 
If you will but read it with a mind wide 
awake to find the passages which make im- 
mortality real, I think your heart will be 
filled with gladness, and with wonder, too, 
at the openings Heavenward — for, truly, 
" the windows of Heaven do open," and in 
the hope of all they reveal, how the Future 
broadens ! And silence, too, grows full of 
music, for we begin to know what the words 
mean which tell, " you shall come to Zion 
with songs and everlasting joy." Only have 
faith — then the promise is so sure, "ye 
shall obtain " — even as they, our dear ones, 
have obtained entrance into the Heavenly 
Home— for, while there is much veiling of 
the " Other Shore," Christ's own words 
assure us they who have heard His call, 
and gone, are at Rest now, safe Home — with 
Him — for His prayer was — " Father, I will 
that those whom Thou hast given Me, be 
with Me, where I am." 

Truly there is no love like the love ol 
Jesus — no solace so tender as the comfort 
He gives, when He lets us gaze through 



OPEN WINDOWS. 23 

the window that opens toward the " green 
pastures and the still waters " of the land 
into which our beloved have entered. Only 
they who have held the hand of the pre- 
cious departing one, till verily they have 
let it go, because Christ's Hand has led 
within, can know the full, sacred, holy mean- 
ing that haloes the death of His Saints. 

Such in-looks belong to the glorious lib- 
erty and light of the children of God, for 
by them we behold with the eye of faith 
"the Heavens open and the Son of Man, 
Jesus our Mediator, sitting on the right 
hand of God " — and where He is, they are — 
our dearest — His Saints! When in the 
night of sorrow God grants us such an 
onward look, it is as when a storm suddenly 
clears away, and stars shine through the 
rifts in the clouds ; and then we know, too, 
what it means to hear "songs in the night." 
— That is the Old Testament promise of 
consolation. And the New echoes it in the 
words, "sorrowing yet rejoicing." 

Ponder for a moment those promised 
songs, and remember they are not blossoms 
out of sunshine, like flowers, but they are 
night songs, born out of sorrow, of which 



24 OPEN WINDOWS. 

darkness stands as the type ; and yet, though 
we learn them through trouble, they are full 
of the music of comfort, for, " God giveth 
them." — " The God, who is our refuge 
and our strength, a very present help in 
trouble. ,, — "The God of all comfort, who 
comforteth us in all our tribulations." And 
because of this comfort we "glory in trib- 
ulation," we can even sing, for "the Lord 
is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble : 
and — He knoweth them that trust Him." 
He has promised, " as one whom his 
mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." 
In " His love and His pity He will re- 
deem." And, you will find, as life goes on, 
that "the Gethsemane places have done 
more for you than the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion" — and that "God's comforts are always 
greater than our troubles." 

It is, too, by acquiescing in God's will we 
learn to thankfully — yes, thankfully — accept 
trouble, since He permits it, and thankful- 
ness is another word for song — and " every 
sorrow brings a peace with it." 

How can your heart enter into harmony 
with this? I know but one reply to give 
you -and that is, do not seek for the songs 



OPEN WINDOWS. 25 

or the peace, but seek Him who giveth 
them, and they will be the outcome of His 
felt Presence in the soul, as sure as sunrise 
is the outcome of day-dawn. This is how 
we Christians live "sorrowing yet rejoicing 
lives," and the turning to Him in our mid- 
night grief is like passing from darkness to 
light — hence the songs come unbidden, not 
because we seek them, I repeat, but because 
we seek the God who gives them. When 
He thus fills the soul, then, as at the coming 
of the morning, the birds of the air break 
forth with song, so our hearts sing ; and 
the simpler, the fuller our trust in Christ, 
the fuller and sweeter the songs. This leads 
me to repeat what I said in a former medi- 
tation — hence we do not welcome suffering 
for what it is, but for what it does ! — and 
nothing is so wont to lead near to God as 
sorrow. And now your next query is, " How 
can you find windows of Heaven opening ?'* 
My reply must again seem a repetition, for 
all I can tell you is — not by seeking them 
through the experience of others — for God 
gives to each one of us a special rev- 
elation, and we can only come to that rev- 
elation by accepting the conditions of our 



26 OPEN WINDOWS. 

surroundings, and doing our duty in them 
faithfully and trustfully ; and — you will 
forgive the warning — this is a place where 
there is always danger of giving " an un- 
due prominence to the blessed and glorious 
work that has been done for us without us, 
to the exclusion of the equally blessed and 
all-important work which must be accom- 
plished within us before we can be meet for 
the Heavenly inheritance that has been pur- 
chased for us, and to which we can have no 
possible claim but the unmerited mercy of 
Jesus Christ." This being so, the fullest 
answer I can give to your query of how to 
obtain Heavenward glimpses, is the simple 
reply, live near to the Source of Light ; for 
the closer we keep to that Light, the more 
we see ; dark places grow so plain in its 
illumining ; mists so vanish before its shin- 
ing. Yes, wonderful as it is, if we live 
near Christ, like Stephen of old, we may see 
the " Heavens opened." But, for such a 
blessed seeing, we must have Stephen's 
spirit, we must look " steadfastly up into 
Heaven." 

Another window of Comfort that Christ 
has opened wide for us, is the blessed sure- 



OPEN WINDOWS. 2} 

ness we have through His death and resin- 
rection — which is the pledge of ours — that 
we will meet our dear ones in Heaven. 
Only for now is the parting. Among the 
Bible records that serve to make this most 
sure, how clearly defined against the blue 
sky of the Gospel narrative is the appearing 
of Moses and Elias on the Transfiguration 
Mount — where we are told "they talked of 
the Lord's decease, which He should accom- 
plish at Jerusalem. " What a token this, 
that while our eyes are holden from the joy 
of seeing our beloved, they may yet see us — 
and have knowledge to some extent of what 
is going on here on earth — -and of what is 
to be our future. Think, too, of the glimpse 
that record gives of the resurrection of the 
body — for they both " heard " and " spoke." 

This leads us to the window widest open 
of all, for through it shines that most blessed 
assurance of Life Hereafter, which is re- 
vealed by Christ's words : " I am He that 
liveth." Liveth ! — that is a promise ol 
perpetual life : there is no echo of death in 
it. And it is a life which reaches out and 
enfolds every one of us — stamping with 
permanency all love that is " love in Christ/ 



28 OPEN WINDOWS. 

This makes friendship such a blessed last 
ing thing, with no break in its real linking 
of heart to heart, even though for a time we 
be separated — the one from the other. A 
lasting thing, I repeat, lasting beyond our 
now power of conception — for who can span 
eternity by a thought ? — Who can limit the 
growth of an endless affection ? And the 
deeper and fuller the heart we love, the 
surer we become of this truth of love's im- 
mortality, for it is the most earnest souls 
that bear the richest testimony that this life 
is not all. And, as though to make this 
even more certain, we have but to look 
from the heart of friendship on to the reve- 
lations made plain by the life of Christ, for 
there we see Love triumphing over mortal 
death, as truly as Life triumphs over the 
grave. If for a time, in the first agony of 
the wrench of parting from our dearest, we 
cry out in doubt of this — "Lord, tell me, 
will we meet again ? " — softly as the dew 
falls on flowers in the gloom of midnight 
darkness, we hear in reply, the tender 
whisper of the "Still, Small Voice"— "Thy 
brother shall live again ! " And — the crown 
to that promise, you know it — for " Christ 



OPEN WINDOWS. 29 

has Risen ! " and His empty tomb has be- 
come the pledge to us that the grave does 
not hold the dear souls of those gone before 
us, who, through His redemption and resur- 
rection " are not dead, but alive forever- 
more." 

How like a warm hand-clasp of comfort 
for the deepest depth of grief comes this 
knowledge, even though it leads us to the 
sepulchre in th^ garden. A place where we 
need to tread very softly, for it is holy 
ground — so holy, much of silence and mys- 
tery veils it. Nevertheless, since the dawn- 
ing of the Resurrection day, though it be a 
path leading by the way of graves, we know 
it is " God's acre," and its onward is the 
" Many-Mansioned Home," of which Christ 
said, " I go to prepare a place for you.' 
For, though graves have been no less since 
that day, they are no longer tight-sealed 
and stone-guarded. No — when the stone 
was rolled from our Saviour's tomb, hence- 
forth stones were rolled from all graves, 
whatever be the sorrow they mark, and on- 
looks were granted beyond the " dying and 
the weeping." 

Such wonderful on-looks — for so tender 



;jO OPEN WINDOWS. 

fs the Saviour's pity for us, He even " maketh 
Intercession, " that these looks may pene- 
trate on to the blessedness of which He 
says, " that they may behold my glory." 
And, "because the Father loves, the Son's 
prayer of Love is granted." For Love is the 
other side of the grave ! 

Remember when sorrow comes — that 
other side — Love y and Ho??ie ! — I often won- 
der what we would do amid the fragmentary, 
broken places of this uncertain existence 
which is at best 

" A wave, a shadow, a breath, a strife, 
With change and change forever rife." 

How we could bear it, were it not that the 
Hope given by "Him who was dead and 
now liveth forevermore " bridges over our 
uncertainty, and is planted firm within the 
golden gate through which we will " for 
Christ's sake " pass at last. 

Yes, dear H , for you and for me the 

gates will open, though now they seem so 
close shut ; we may — wonderful thought — 
even this very hour stand within their enclo- 
sure ; we may be " nearer Home,"— "nearer 
now than we think." 



OF EN WINDOWS. 31 

You ask me, before we leave this sub- 
ject, to look with you through "the window 
of prayer" — and you prelude your request 
by the question, "What is prayer?" Old 
Bunyan's definition is, "Prayer is the pitch- 
er that fetches water from the brook." If 
this be so, surely a window is open in 
Heaven from which light descends to make 
clear the reflections mirrored in the "brook 
in the way," whose waters are replenished by 
the prayers of God's pleading children. 

A full gleam of radiance shines, too, on the 
spirit of submission, which is the key-note 
of true prayer. For if we follow our "great 
Exemplar in Prayer" we must say, "Thy 
will, not mine, be done." Perseverance is 
another bright shining wavelet ; and here, 
also, we have our Lord's example — for He 
offered one prayer three times, and surely we 
learn from His frequent resorting to the 
refuge of prayer that it is the best prepa- 
ration for trial. But the dearest place to 
which the thought of our praying Lord 
leads, is the example He gives that we may 
plead for our precious ones, even as He 
prayed for His own. " What a blessing, too, 
is the spiritual telegraphy of prayer ! We 



32 OPEN WIXDOY'S. 

never pray alone, but encircled by those 
whose wants are dear to us, and our prayers 
are buo} r ed up by the wants and aspirations 
of those who mingle in them. It is such a 
privilege to thus go to God with the import- 
ance which linking others' wants to ours 
gives to our petitions." What out-reaching 
that extract suggests ! — Let us look at 
prayer, too, from a backward view, and recall 
how "the practice of prayer is co-extensive 
with the idea of religion"; for "wherever 
man has believed a higher power to exist, 
he has not merely discussed the possibility 
of entering into converse with such a power: 
he has assumed as a matter of course that he 
can do so." " Sacrifice begins at the very gate 
of Eden. The life of early Patriarchs is de- 
scribed as a ' walking with God' — a contin- 
uous reference of thought and aspiration to 
the Father above." How this early-felt 
need of communion through prayer points 
on to the time when " the new revelation 
was made in Jesus Christ," and when "there 
was little to add to what was already be- 
lieved as to the power and obligation of 
prayer beyond revealing the secret of its 
acceptance." Think, too, of our Lord's 



OPEN WINDOWS. 33 

precepts and example ; they are sufficiently 
emphatic. And His apostles appear ;o 
re resent prayer not so much as a prac- 
tice of the Christian life as its very truth 
and instinctive movement. The Christian 
must be "continuing instant in prayer"; 
he must " pray without ceasing." One 
word more from this author's thoughts, 
and I think you will call the window 
of prayer wide open. It is — remember, 
" prayer is emphatically religion in action. 
It is the soul of man engaged in that par- 
ticular form of activity which presupposes 
the existence of a great bond between itself 
and God. Prayer is, therefore, nothing else 
or less than the noblest kind of human ex- 
ertion. It is the one department of action 
in which man realizes the highest privilege 
and capacity of his being. And, in doing 
this, he is himself enriched and ennobled al- 
most indefinitely : now, as of old, when he 
comes down from the mountain his face 
bears tokens of an irradiation which is not 
of this world." 

We have dwelt much in this little diary 
on the lesson of "sorrow "and of "service" 



34 OPEN WINDOWS. 

■ — and yet you ask me, before we come to 
its last page, to point you to still another 
window through which you may view 
them both by gazing Heavenward. In re- 
ply, for " sorrow," I copy words from Rob- 
ertson, for they flood with light to my mind, 
and I think will to yours, the truth that 
sorrow's mission is the development of a 
higher spiritual life. " Sorrow is not an ac- 
cident, occurring now and then ; it is the 
very woof which is woven into the warp oi 
life God has created the nerves to agonize 
and the heart to bleed ; and before a man 
dies, almost every nerve has thrilled with 
pain and every affection has been wounded. 
The account of life which represents it as 
probative is inadequate : so is that which 
regards it chiefly as a system of rewards 
and punishments. The truest account of 
'.his mysterious existence seems to be that 
it is intended for the development of the 
soul's life, for which sorrow is indispen- 
sable. Every son of man, who would at- 
tain the true end of his being, must be bap- 
tized with fire. It is the law of our human- 
ity, as that of Christ, that we must be per- 
fected through suffering. And he who has 



OPEN WINDOWS. 35 

not discerned the divine sacredness of sor- 
row, and the profound meaning which is 
concealed in pain, has yet to learn what life 
is. The cross, manifested as the necessity 
of the highest life, alone interprets it." 

As for the window that looks toward the 
prophecy held in service, it is not far 
to seek — for, as indolence is always like a 
moth in its subtle but sure destruction of 
energy, steadfast earnest service is a corre- 
spondingly sure indication of advance ; and 
all advance in the spiritual life is an open 
window showing as its sign that the same 
mighty conqueror who was victorious over 
the grave, will be triumphant in the over- 
coming of spiritual death in our souls if we 
earnestly seek to serve Him. 

And service is something with which all 
life is hedged in, since it can be rendered by 
a passive obedience as well as active — and 
though "it is by active performance of ser- 
vice for others, that self is most wont to be 
cast out of sight, and unselfish love to our 
neighbor expanded/' yet quiet and seem- 
ingly uneventful lives offer plenty of oppor- 
tunities for this, too. For, there is always 
the conflict with sins around us, and within, 



36 OPEN WINDOWS. 

and I know no better way of pointing 
toward the window that struggle with temp- 
tation opens, than that which Farrar tells 
— when he writes: " He who tempers the 
wind to the shorn Lamb, tempers also the 
temptations to the weak soul. 

" He knoweth our frame, He remembereth 
that we are but dust. Oh, in that hero- 
multitude who follow the Lamb whither- 
soever He goeth, think not that there are 
only the dauntless, and the powerful, the 
great in heart and the strong in faith : no, 
there are many of the weak and timid, many 
of the obscure and the ignorant, many of the 
shrinking and the suffering there. We saw 
not, till they were unfolded for the flight of 
death, the angel wings." 

The window through which weariness 
looks Heavenward ! — its prospect is all Rest 
— that blessed rest they know, who serve 
Him day and night with never a need to say 
— " I am tired." 

And, now, we will take just one glance 
through the window Paul throws so wide 
for all believers, when he writes : * This 
one thing I do, forgetting those things 
which are behind, and reaching forth unto 



OPEN WINDOWS. 37 

those things that are before, I press toward 
the mark for the prize of the high calling 
in Christ Jesus." 

Words, these, that portray the heritage 
that only belongs to the Christian ! even 
the right to forget the past — and in that 
forgetting we find a window opening toward 
the future that is verily as full of promise 
as the bud is the promise of fruit. 

But remembe there is but one way given 
by which we are enabled to forget — and that 
is, by reaching forward ; for the object of 
each experience is the fitting the soul for 
another, while the thing we accomplish is 
always of so much less importance in God's 
sight, than what we become through its 
developing power. 

This constant progress, constant ' step- 
ping-Heavenward," is so the mark of true 
soul life, for the command, " Speak unto the 
children of Israel that they go forward," is 
as much a command for us now, as it was 
for God's children of old ; and just as they 
had nothing to do with the land of bondage 
after they had passed its confines, so we 
have nothing to do with our past when we 
have given our hearts to Christ, for we gave 



38 OPEN WINDOWS. 

that to Him, too — and, spite the sins that 
stain its record — He has promised, "sins 
shall be blotted out, remembered no more," 
hence they are not for us to recall. And, 
certainly, with whatever of good there may 
have been in our by-gone, we have nothing 
to do — He will take care of it — our path is 
all forward ! 

I think this is why such a deep signifi- 
cance is given in the Bible to " looking 
back " — and why the emblem of death is set 
as a warning against it. You remember 
Lot's wife dead — dead — only in punishment 
for a backward look ! — No wonder this 
solemn lesson has stood a type of spiritual 
death, through the ages that have come and 
gone since the angel voice proclaimed — 
" Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, 
.... escape to the mountains. " 

Do you ask, what I think the prize Paul 
sought — and which, in following his exam- 
ple, we are to seek ? 

Likeness to Christ, is my reply ; thus 
it is always something beyond us, for the 
more like Him we become, the fuller and 
deeper is our knowledge of what He is, 
and the more eager grows our reaching 



OPEN WINDOWS. 39 

forth after likeness to Him. Yes — 3urely 
this was the prize Paul desired — for it was 
not Heaven he sought, Heaven was in his 
heart already. It was not to be saved — for 
of salvation he was already assured through 
the love of Christ — hence, plainly, we see it 
was likeness to the great Example. 

And with such a prize set before him, 
how could he help " counting all things 
but loss that he might win"? Ah! well 
might he term it "a high calling." And 
lest we be discouraged as we strive to un 
this race, not perfection^ but faithfulness 
is made the test of success ; while being 
perfect is always the open window to- 
ward which faithfulness points, granting us 
through it, even now, glimpses of the blessed 
hereafter, when we si all "wake up in His 
likeness ": when we shall enter within " the 
veil whither the forerunner — Jesus — is al- 
ready entered for us." 

And so, dear H , all we have to do is 

to run with patience " the race set before 
us, looking unto Jesus, the author and fin- 
isher of our faith." And not looking for 
what the world calls success — for that our 
Lord never promised us in this life. No, He 



40 OPEN WINDOWS. 

said — " In the world ye shall have tribula- 
tion. " Nevertheless, He bade us " be of good 
cheer." Hence this is a command that we 
must read in the same way that we look at 
a rough transparency, whose inequalities 
'"eveal naught but a broken surface as we 
gaze down on it, but which, when held up 
for the light to illume, becomes a beautiful 
picture ; just as tribulations held up toward 
the light become transparent and fall of 
Love's revealing. And those rays of Light 
■ — remember, they are to be on-reaching, 
even to the including others in their bright- 
ness. How beautiful and precious the hope 
that in-shines through this window. — Think ! 
" others toiling, striving, suffering as we, will 
catch trom us in the days to come, some 
touch of tender, helpful comfort, if now, in 
the hour of trial, we hold fast to God and 
to holiness. ,, 

You remember, dear H , we prefaced 

this our " open window" meditation by 
the emblem held in sunrise ; let us now 
seal it with the emblem of sunset — a meta- 
phor no less meaningful. Not a cloud- 
less sunset, when the world is flooded with 
the shimmer of a pale uniform light, but 



OPEN WINDOWS. 41 

one heralded by cloud heaped high on 
cloud, for it is then that each catch a sun- 
beam that reveals a special ray of glory, 
bringing out now one and then another 
"sun and cloud " tinting of rainbow ra- 
diance, till at last the earth as well as sky 
is aglow with brightness. 

A meaningful type, I repeat, for thus it is 
with the sorrows and trials of life ; through 
the shining on them of God's care for us 
they each and every one become a sepa- 
rate beam, till at last before the full glory 
of His Love and Light they roll away and 
the u Windows of Heaven " open with no 
shadow between our upward gaze, and His 
down-shining brightness. 

May " God be merciful unto us, and bless 
us, and thus show us the Light " — even the 
light of His countenance. And He will, if 
in faith we seek it, for Christ said — " I am 
the Light of the world." Walk, then, as a 
child of light, " in quietness and confidence 
wherein is strength." 



"Almighty God, who showest to those 
that are in error the Light of Thy truth, . . . 



42 OPEN WINDOWS. 

and who alone canst order the unruly wills 
and affections of sinful men, grant unto 
Thy people that they may love the things 
which Thou commandest, and desire that 
which Thou dost promise : that so among 
the manifold changes of this world, our 
hearts may surely There be fixed, where our 
true joys are to be found ; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen " 



THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 



" We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the 
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image 
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 

2 Cor. iii. 18. 

1 Says God : Who comes to me an inch through doubt- 

ings dim, 
In blazing light I do approach a yard toward Him/' 

Oriental Poetry. 



II. 

THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

I AM in full sympathy with you, dear 
H , in regard to what you say about 

" religious truth and controversy." 
. Yes, you are right, the very air nowadays 
seems pulsating with what is called " new 
theology," " progressive thought," "ad- 
vanced views," and " widening out-looks." 

But while I agree with you that there are 
grave dangers in all this, I think there are 
great blessings, too, and always there is the 
safety-place to which we may flee, for 
" God's Truth is one and abiding." 

Nevertheless, the present bewilderment in 
the breaking up of "creed authority " must 
present a serious phenomenon to all earnest 
minds, marked as it is by modern individ- 
ualism. 

" How are we to account for it ? " you ask. 

The universally acknowledged fact that 

(45) 



46 THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

" religion is an indispensable part of man's 
moral and mental out-fit/' suggests one re- 
ply : and two causes have contributed to 
deepen this conviction in modern times. 
Canon Liddon tells us : " The first is the 
subjective spirit of the age which insists on 
looking at truth, not as it is, in its utter inde- 
pendence of the mind of man, but as it pre- 
sents itself to man's mind, or rather as man's 
mind in very varying moods approaches 
it. This spirit, while it has weakened 
the public hold upon creeds and Scriptures, 
has directed attention with an intensity un- 
known before our day, to the needs of the 
human mind, and among them to its su- 
preme need of a religion." 

He further writes : " The indispensable- 
ness of religion to human life has also been 
forced on the mind of this generation by a 
deeper study of history." You will see the 
truth of this statement, if you sum up the 
most important historical events, for you 
will then see how " the most profound and 
far-reaching changes have really turned up- 
on religious questions." 

Recall, too, that saying of Goethe's, " The 
deepest subject in the history of the world 



THE AGE WE LIVE IN. aj 

and of mankind, and that to which all others 
are subordinate, is the conflict between faith 
and unbelief/' 

Realizing all this, we see interest in re- 
ligion is inevitable among the thoughtful 
of our day and generation. But the practi- 
cal question is, " What is it that man seeks 
in seeking religion ? " And this brings us to 
one of the "signs of the time" that troubles 
you, because it seems lacking in the earnest 
reverence with which you fain would have 
all sacred topics encompassed. 

You say, " The most holy truths, from fa- 
miliar discussion have come to be tossed 
about in conversation with a careless irrev- 
erence that thinks more of the theories and 
opinions to be maintained than of the vital 
truth that makes their real value." 

Yes — I know this is so, but, for you, as 
well as for myself, it need not trouble us if 
we keep within the Shadow of His Hand, 
within the sound of His <k still, small voice/' 
whose faintest whisper can calm all the din 

and turmoil of mere opinion. And what 

are opinions but a result of views, and 
hence limited by spiritual outlook. It is 
well to remember this, for in the matter of 



48 THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

" religious views" — which I think a strictly 
accurate philosophical expression — new im- 
pressions and ideas come crowding in on 
us, just as they do when we look out over 
some wide land or sea view, and need to 
wait, before we can adjust "near and far" 
into their own true places — for so we need 
to wait, before we pronounce decidedly on 
subjects of which even the wisest are slow 
in judging. 

And as we wait, let us remember, "ther^ 
may be absolute and higher truth of which 
what we know is only the shadowed outline; 
we cannot reach it now — but it is there, 
ready for us behind the veil." 

And at best, what can we prove ? Ten 
nyson's words are so true: 

" For nothing worthy proving can be proven, 

Nor yet disproven: wherefore then be wise, 

And cling to Faith, beyond the forms of Faith ! 

She reels not in the storm of warring words, 

She brightens at the clash of ' Yes ' and ' No.' 

She sees the Best that glimmers thro' the Worst, 

She feels the Sun is hid but for a night, 

She spies the Summer thro' the winter bud, 

She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls, 

She hears the lark within the songless egg, 

She finds the fountain, where they wailed, ' Mirage ! ' 



THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 49 

Hence, I bid you hold your mind open 
to truth, even though it may come to you 
at the cost of your pulling down a hoard 
of maxims, and close clinging to the letter 
of the law rather than the spirit — a state of 
mind that I call, for lack of a better term, 
a sort of framing in of your traditional con- 
science. Do not infer from this that I mean 
speculation is truth, or that systems of 
thought are to be received as God's revela- 
tion. But what I want to recognize is, that 
there is danger in a too determined cling- 
ing to the " old ways," as well as danger in 
an undue reaching out after the new. For 
the one is apt, as we grow in years, to de- 
velop into superstition, while the other, 
without prayerful watching, will end in 
scepticism. 

Let us then, dear H — , hold fast to the 

" faith once delivered," but let us " add to 
faith, knowledge." And a generous will- 
ingness to welcome what of good has grown 
out of the wide study and enlarged thought 
of the present age. As I write this, I feel 
I need the warning, perchance, more than 
you do, for I am a very conservative by na- 
ture, prone to abjure theories, and I will con- 



50 THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

fess it has always, and does now seem to me, 
that those who simply and trustfully do the 
present duty, are wont to be clearer-sighted 
in the spiritual life, than those whose vision 
ranges far. For, there is always the risk, 
that in searching for great things, we may 
overlook the present, and the command is 
for day by day living. Nevertheless, the 
world has need for the far seekers, as well 
as the near, and to whichever party we be- 
long, it is well for us to be wide awake to 
the good contained in the other. 

But let us turn from these ponderings, 
which savor of unrest in a certain way, and 
instead of them, listen for a while to the 
whispers of the voice in the soul — and, if 
those whispers lead us round to the same 
thoughts, we need not fear to follow their 
guidance, for it is the Holy Spirit that leads 
by them. 

How still they are, these Spirit whispers, 
and so powerful ! Silent as sunlight, yet 
transmuting the material into the spiritual, 
bidding us penetrate like the warm rays of 
sunshine beyond and beneath the visible. 
That is a real " modern day " thought, do 
you tell me ? Well, if it is, think of the be- 



THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 5 I 

neath, where there is so much concealed ! 
Think how diamonds lie hidden from sight 
year after year, and gold, deep imbedded 
under fathoms of rock and loam. Think, 
too, of the springs of living waters that are 
locked for centuries silent in fastnesses of 
the hills, and the deep caverns of the earth 
— and all these treasures are waiting for 
some touch, like that of Moses* rod, to set 
them free. 

These thoughts are types, and yet types 
even when Bible-culled are well-nigh empty, 
till they become meaningful because oi 
some linking with real life, that serves to 
illuminate their spiritual as well as their 
material side. 

And, the " still, small Voice/' how often 
it guides memory back over a silent stretch 
of years to some such life-like remembrance. 

This very minute it brings to my mind a 
simple "all true" story, that holds in sug- 
gestion a lesson full of the portrayal of 
God's overruling Love revealed by the 
bringing to light one of the " beneath 
things." And because it points beyond the 
visible, I pass it on to you. 

It leads to a far distant land and a time, 



52 THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

by-gone by many years. Our surroundings 
are all strange, " cannons to right, and can- 
nons to left" of us. The siege of Sebasto- 
pol is at its height. The brave, undaunted 
band of battle-marred soldiers who for long 
have guarded one special point grow less in 
number with every passing hour. Long 
fasting — and the deadlier foe, thirst — doing 
a more fatal work than cannon-ball and 
bursting shell. And yet, in the hearts of 
those brave men hope died hard — but, thirst 

is cruel, and with it came despair — when 

Hark ! — through the parting air once again 
Russian shell follows shell, once again the 
earth is rent and torn, the crimson tide of 
life-blood flows fast — when — lo ! — from the 
clefted sod up-wells a bubbling foun- 
tain ! — water — pure and cool ! And that 
life-spring, set free by an enemy's missile 
of death, never once failed while the siege 
lasted. To scores and scores of thirst- 
parched men it proved an almoner of life 
and refreshment. There is no need for me 
to point the meaning of this story, it tells 
its own lesson, and yet such stories are well 
to recall when one has been dwelling on the 
environment of the present day. For they 



THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 53 

tell us, escape from the trammel of " why 
and wherefore " is found in a firm trust in 
the overruling care of Him who can cause 
water to up-spring in the desert, who can 
say to the wildest storm of doubt, " Be 
still," and there will be "a great calm." 

And now, here we are round again to the 
fact that speculation, the spirit of question- 
ing, like a huge interrogation-point on a 
blank page is the atmosphere of the age we 
live in. We cannot put this truth by — and 
would we if we could ? I think not, for, 
thank God, if the waves that toss this ques- 
tioning age be turbulent and restless, as 
mid-ocean billows, yet hearts and minds have 
grown broader by the very tossing. Faith's 
boundaries have widened, spite the fact 
that sometimes they seem narrowing. We 
have come to know, 

" The love of God is broader 

Than the measure of man's mind, 
And the heart of the Eternal 
Is most wonderfully kind." 

We have come to a clearer insight of the 
lines of progress, and see through perspect- 
ive the real advance that has followed the 



54 THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

learning that where the questioning is 
honest, it may yield a richer harvest than 
that which ripens from a persistent clinging 
to "what one has been taught." Robert 
Browning expresses this in words that may 
seem to you somewhat harsh — still, I think 
you will acknowledge they are alive with 
the vigor of a healthy progressive life : 

" And so I live, you see, 
Go through the world, try, prove, reject, 
Prefer, still struggling to effect 
My warfare : happy that I can 
Be crossed and thwarted as a man, 
Not left in God's contempt apart 
With ghastly smooth life, dead at heart, 
Tame in earth's paddock as her prize. 

Thank God, no paradise stands barred 
To entry, and I find it hard 
To be a Christian, as I said." 

If all this involves a time of spiritual up- 
stirring, surely we can rest satisfied that a 
higher order will blossom out of it, just as 
the earth that is most stirred by plow and 
furrow, in the end brings forth the fullest 
fruitage. 
As to the matter of unsettled creeds, if 



THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 55 

we remember creeds, even the very best of 
them, are of man's making, how many a 
note of discord would be quieted, because 
louder than them all, sounds the Voice of 
Him, who summed up in so brief a space 
the first and great foundation principle of 
Christian life — love — love to God, and love 
to man. 

Love ! — it touches the key-note of a creed I 
pray God you and I may in very truth be 
able to preface with an u I believe." 

Love! — ah, if that one word in all its ful- 
ness could stand as the capital letter of all 
creeds, how the spirit of opposition would 
die out for want of nourishment, the bitter- 
ness of discussion grow warm and fragrant 
with the incense that haloes Christ's " Love " 
command; for when love is the root, little 
does it matter whether the flower of worship 
be a blossom of liturgy, or of untrammeled 
speech. 

And — what do disputes and differences of 
opinion, lengthy discussions, and clashing 
arguments as to that most vexed and mooted 
question, the Hereafter, amount to, before 
the greater question, Is thy heart right be- 
fore God,? 



$6 THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

If we can answer that, standing in the 
full illumining of His promise, " Unto the 
upright there ariseth light," we need feel no 
fear of this questioning, restless age, for 
then our anchor is Faith. We can calm our- 
selves in the thought of the strong, steady 
Hand at the wheel, and holding that Hand, 
oh, how surely we know the waves wreck- 
ing about us never for one moment mean 
the parting of the strong planks of the Life- 
Boat in which we sail. For above the i 
and the roar of howling winds and break- 
ing waves, loud and clear as the song of a 
lark, rings out the Lighthouse bell — " Port 
is near." " The Haven is sir. Hold 

fast, all is well." 

Yes, very well ; for even n 

" The lights are gleaming from the distant shore, 
Where no billows threaten, where no tempests I 

Does the glimmer of these lights make 
you long to go ? 

Yes — I know many a time it is hard 

not to pray, 

11 Lord, loose the cable, let me go — " 

But 

M Hark the solemn answer, 
Hark the promise sure, 



THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 



57 



Blessed are the servants who to the end endure ! 

Vet a little longer, hope and tarry on, 

Yet a little longer, weak and weary one — 

More to perfect patience, to grow in faith and love, 

More my strength and wisdom, and faithfulness to 

prove, 
Then the sailing orders the captain shall bestow — 
Loose the cable, let thee go." 

I do not feel satisfied, dear H , to 

leave this meditation without turning again 
for a moment to the thought that en- 
vironment counts for much, hence we must 
meet the questions of this age we live in, 
for (hey are stirring around us like snow- 
flakes falling thick and fast on a De- 
cember storm day. Then, too, I so want 
you to feel the strength, the quietness, and 
confidence there is in meeting them with a 
firm trust in the great " I Am." Out of this 
trust comes a power that enables the mind 
to discriminate between doubt and specula- 
tion, as the eager search of an earnest soul 
after light, and doubt and speculation as a 
mere indulgence of spiritual self-conceit, 
for there is a vast difference in the two. 

I recall a lesson of wisdom on this very 
point, and the importance of being just in 
the reception of what may be to us new 



5 3 THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

thoughts. It was taught a company of la- 
dies by one of God's dear saints, who went 
from earth to Heaven not many months 
ago. 

Dispute ran high; the verdict pronounced 
on the young minister under discussion, and 
who had recently been called to fill a cen- 
tury and century-old gospel pulpit, was 
u too progressive," " too advanced." 

Silently my old friend had listened, while 
one of those shrewd, yet kindly smiles that 
seem to belong to a fast passing generation, 
lit up her countenance. When at last she 
spoke, it was very quietly, and at first I 
thought her words far away from the sub- 
ject. 

"In my young days." thus she began, 
"voyagers across the wide Atlantic took 
passage in some staunch, white-winged 
sailing craft, and slow was the progress, 
requiring many a tack to eastward and to 
westward to catch every breath of the fa- 
voring wind." Just here she paused be- 
fore adding : " But nowadays things are 
changed. Swift as a bird goes through the 
air, the steam-fed vessel spans the ocean 
miles. A voyage that once took weeks to 



THE AGE WE LIVE IN. Jq 

accomplish, now fills a time brief as from 
one Sabbath to the next." 

Then came a pause again, while the smile 
on her face became more tender, as after a 
minute she continued : " And, somehow — I 
am thinking, though the old ways are good 
(she was too loyal to admit a past tense), the 
old ways are dear, yet if I were to start to- 
morrow for a land beyond the sea, you 
would not bid me set sail in some old-time 
' ship of the line/ No, you would send me 
forth with a \ God-speed ' in the very swiftest 
and the surest of the modern-built vessels 
that ply from shore to shore. — And — I am 
thinking " — unconsciously she seemed to re- 
peat the words — " we should be as open- 
minded in acknowledging the good progress 
made in the spiritual world, where religious 
thought is leader, as we are to acknowledge 
the progress made in the material." And 
there was not one of all that company who 
said " nay " to my old friend's words. 

And now by way of farewell to this subject, 

dear H , I will let Canon Liddon speak to 

you again, for I much like the way by which 
he tells: "If man's religious wants are to 
be answered, his creed must speak, not 



60 THE AGE WE LIVE IN. 

merely to his intelligence, but to his heart 
and will. He cannot really rest upon the 
most unimpeachable abstractions. He needs 
something warmer than the truest philoso- 
phy. He yearns to come in contact with a 
heart: and no religion, therefore, can really 
satisfy him which does not at least lead 
him to know and love a person. An unseen 
Friend, who will purify, and teach, and 
check, and lead, and sustain him: — that is 
his great necessity. And this want, this 
last but deepest want of man's religious 
life, Christianity has satisfied. As human- 
ity, ( sitting in darkness and in the shadow 
of death,' pleads with the Power whom it 
feels, but cannot see — c Show Thou me the 
way that I should walk in, for I lift up my 
soul unto Thee/ Lo ! the heavens drop 
down from above, and the skies pour forth 
righteousness. And One fairer than the 
children of men presents Himself to all the 
centuries and centuries of the world with 
the gracious bidding: 'Come unto Me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I 
vvill give you rest' only come." 



WILDERNESS DAYS. 



" Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wil 
derness to be tempted of the devil." 

Matt. iv. i. 

" Soul of Jesus .... 
Thy Spirit weighs the sins of man .... 
And Thou hast struggled with it, Lord ! . . . . 
By the pains of Thy pure love 
Grant me the gift of holy fear .... 
Even when tempted, make me see." 

Faber. 



III. 

WILDERNESS DAYS. 

I WILL bring you into the wilder- 
ness." 

How like a special invitation that sounds, 
a special assurance of our Lord's own lead- 
ing: "/ will bring you" — but, ah! dear 
H , think where it leads. 

And — whether we will go or not is not 
asked — no, the words are, " will bring/' 
Temptation — for that is what this wilder- 
ness typifies for us — is something Ave must 
all meet; the only thing about it that is 
under our control is the yielding or resist- 
ing, and that involves conflict, for it is a 
struggle between the evil and the good 
which are implanted in every heart for the 
development of character. And, that we 
may have courage for this conflict, the com- 
panionship of our Saviour in times of trial 
is repeatedly promised. We are even told: 

(63) 



64 WILDERNESS DAYS. 

" He was in all points tempted like as we 
are." But, ah! the difference! — He was 
"without sin" — while as for us! — who can 
number their sins ? — Not either you or 
I. To return to the comfort and strength 
of Christ's knowing all about temptation — 
except the yielding to it — have you ever 
followed this thought of the two-foldness 
that runs through Christian life? — making 
it a condition of being " alone, yet not 
alone." 

It shines with so bright a light on the 
complex truth that the Divine Helper is 
working with us, and yet, while our choosing 
good is the work of God, it is at the same 
time a work only accomplished through our 
own free determinate willingness to choose 
the good. This working of God and man 
together, stands out so clearly defined in 
the history of wilderness days, for truly 
temptations seem one of the plainest ways 
of revealing it, one of the most comforting 
too; for since our Lord was led into the 
wilderness, and trod every step of the way 
before us, if we seek His strength, the 
" strength made perfect in weakness," after 
the trial-time we, you and I, may "come up 



WILDERNESS DAYS. 6q 

from the wilderness leaning on our Be- 
loved. " Listen to His invitation : 

" Lean on me ! unchanging love 

Shall shield thee, in my warm embrace. 
Lift up thy thoughts, thy hope's above, 

No frowns are on thy Saviour's face. 
Art thou distressed with inward guilt 

When secret sins rise up to view ? 
Forget not then, whose blood was spilt 

To cleanse, to sanctify, renew." 

Lean hard, my child, dismiss thy fear, 
I will uphold." 

Can you sing from your heart the last 
verses of this simple hymn — 

" Jesus, my Lord ! I know Thy Voice, 
On Thee with confidence I lean, 
In Life, in death, my only choice, 
All hope, all wealth, in Thee are seen. 

" Here will I lean, nor doubt Thy love, 
Or power to hold me safely up — 
With heart and hope still fixed above, 
Humbly I'll drink Thy mingled cup." 

Ah ! if you can truly sing them, then, verily, 
the words, " come up, leaning on our Be- 
loved," belong to you. " Come up " ! the 



66 WILDERNESS DAYS. 

very words proclaim advance — something is 
gained by the wilderness sojourn. The is- 
sue of temptation is upward toward victory. 
For Christ has made it possible for us to 
meet temptation with the hope of conquer- 
ing. " We Christians can dare to face it, for 
He has brought us both a pardon and an 
antidote. His cross and passion are a 

revelation as well as a cure When 

dying He showed us what sin is 

Standing beneath the Cross, we can never 
deem moral evil less or other than the great- 
est, if it be not rather the only evil. Kneel- 
ing before the Crucified, be our sense of 
guilt what it may, we can never despair, 
since the complete revelation of the malig- 
nity of sin is also and simultaneously a reve- 
lation of the Love that knows no bounds." 

" It is these concrete truths, and no ab- 
stract considerations, which really keep alive 
in the Christian's heart an abhorrence and 
dread of moral evil. With that evil, even 
when all has been pardoned, every Christian 
life is, from first to last, in varying degrees 
a struggle. There are great conflicts, and 
there are periods of comparative repose ; 
there are days of failure, as well as days of 



WILDERNESS DAYS. 67 

victory ; there are quickenings of buoyant 
thankful hope, and there are hours of dis- 
couragement which is only not despair. 
But two things a genuine Christian never 
does : he never makes light of any known 
sin, and he never admits it to be invincible. 
While he constantly endeavors, by the sanc- 
tification of his desires, by entwining his 
affections more and more around the Source 
of goodness, to destroy sin in the bud, or 
rather in its root and principle, he is never 
off his guard ; never surprised at new proof 
of his natural weakness ; never disposed to 
underrate either his dangers or his strength. 
He knows that now, as eighteen centuries 
ago, he wrestles not against flesh and blood, 
but against principalities and powers that 
bear him no good-will : he knows that as at 
the first, so now, i if any man sin we have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
the Righteous, and He is the propitiation 
for our sins.' And thus, in his inmost life, 
he is at once anxious and hopeful : confi- 
dent, yet without presumption ; alive to all 
that is at stake day by day, hour by hour : 
yet stayed upon the thought, nay, upon the 
felt presence of a Love which has not really 



68 WILDERNESS DAYS. 

left him to himself. And at last, when it 
seems best to that Eternal Love, the day of 
struggle draws to its close, and the towers 
of the Everlasting City come into view : the 
city within whose precincts intellectual 
error cannot penetrate, and moral failure 
is unknown." — "Thanks be to God who 
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ. ,, 

A long extract, dear H , w T hich I cull 

from the volume, quoted often before — 
Canon Liddon's "Elements of Religion " — 
but if you read it carefully, I think you will 
find it none too long, for it will prove a help- 
ful entrance to thoughts on the peculiar temp- 
tations that belong to our wilderness days. 
But, before we ponder them, let us pause 
to note the lesson of Israel's wilderness 
mercies and wilderness wanderings, with an 
application to ourselves, for since the Old 
Testament as well as the New is for instruc- 
tion, they must hold lessons for us. 

And the wilderness through which God's 
chosen people were brought, that they 
might "go up to the good land and take 
possession of it," surely is a very striking 
emblem of our spiritual experience, for re- 



WILDERNESS DAYS. 69 

member we are the Lord's spiritual Israel, 
and the wilderness stands as a type of the 
world through which we must journey, not 
escaping its temptations, but overcoming 
them, if we are to enter "the good land of 
promise, ,, the Canaan which we can only 
reach as we pass over Jordan ! 

Passing over Jordan ! The meaning held 
in that passing, how deep it goes, reaching 
down to the very root of self-love and self- 
will. For, though the metaphors are differ- 
ent, the underlying truth — death to self — 
is the same as that to which St. Paul re- 
ferred when he said, " I die daily." 

The death of self-will — no wonder we 
come to it by the way of the wilderness, for 
it dies hard. 

No wonder the waters of the typical Jor- 
dan are cold and dark: no wonder we dread 
the entering into life through death, and 
yet we must do it if we are to be " made con- 
formable to His death." But it is not death 
of which we are to think — no, it is life — for 
that is what our Lord imparts to us when 
we have passed over Jordan. Yes, life — for 
the promise is, not only that we shall abide 
"in Him," but that He "abides in us." 



70 WILDERNESS DAYS. 

Remember, out of this abiding, "comes 
the soul's communing with God, which re- 
peals the secret of Divine wisdom. Think-- 
"out of the abiding of the Son with the 
Father flows the wealth of the Word's high 
knowledge. He knows — because He abides 
in the bosom of the Father. This is the 
law of intellectual life in its highest con- 
ceivable expression, in the Word, who is 
the Thought and Reason of God Himself: 
this law, then, regulates the exercise of 
reason from end to end of its domains: 
in this lies the secret of its force, the condi- 
tion of its success: and we, on our lower 
level, we, whose reason works in the image 
of the Word, in whose light alone we see 
light, can win our intellectual way only 
through conformity to the primal condi- 
tions under which the Word of God moves 
forward to His victorious apprehensions. 
We can only understand that in which we 
abide, with which we have intimate union, 

to which we are ourselves conformed 

The closer our contact, the surer grows our 
knowledge: and only out of the growing 
pressure of familiar intercourse can our 
reason gain ever-quickening activity, ever- 



WILDERNESS DAYS. J I 

increasing assurance Its instinctive 

sympathies, its sense of security, its touches 
of persuasiveness, its effective presence, all 
vary infinitely, according to the character 
of its abiding habits, according to the range 

of its experiences." Ah ! if we can grasp 

what this abiding means, if we can but 
touch even the hem of this truth, with the 
touch of faith, we have indeed come near 
to the border of the "good land." And, by 
the power of His life — "Christ in us" — we 
can thus approach, we can know, at last we 
will overcome, though now, fight we must. 
We can rest assured also, that no upward 
flight of holiness is too far a reach for us to 
seek : no victory over temptation too hard 
for us to attain, since with Christ for our 
Risen and Living Lord, " all things have be- 
come possible." Hence, if we do not over- 
come, it is not because His power fails, but 
because we hold back from full consecration 
of our all to Him. The consecration which 
He bids us seek and find when He calls us, 
saying : " I will bring you into the wilder- 
ness, and I will plead with you face to face." 
Do you ask — Why call that a wilderness, 
which leads to Christ's converse with the 



J2 WILDERNESS DAYS. 

soul intimate as the "pleading face to 
face " ? 

If you will recall His Gospel words, 
" Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest," I 
think you will straightway see one reason. 
For they bear the same interpretation as 
this Old Testament invitation. And they 
bring out very plainly that the rest prom- 
ised even when the soul is called near to 
Christ, is of a relative kind, for it springs 
from the fact, that His yoke is easy, and 
yet it is a burden — is a yoke only made easy 
by His sympathy and love; it brings out 
the fact, too, that our rest here is in com- 
parison with earth's unrest, and that in 
bearing His yoke, even though He is with 
us, helping us bear it, we still, like the 
children of Israel, find there is no swift 
speeding across the desert to the "rest and 
inheritance/' for our way there is like the 
path they trod, "a long way, round about." 

Do you catch my idea ? It is, that in the 
Gospel the call, " Come unto me .... I 
will give you Rest," is distinct from the fol- 
lowing verses: the one, having to do with 
the " Hereafter," the others with now: the 



WILDERNESS DAYS. Jl 

order being reversed from the Old Testa- 
ment record, where first we encounter the 
thought of the wilderness, and afterward 
are granted the glimpse of the " promised 
land." 

" Come unto Me." This is a call bidding us 
" leave the burden of mortal life, the sorrow 
of a sin-laden world, the weakness and the 
faulty character, the imperfect love of frail 
mortality ; leave it all, and come — where ? 
Not only to Heaven, not to your crown only, 
but to Me ! and you shall find Rest, and 
that Rest shall be Heaven." We cannot, do 
not gain it here on earth, for the next verse 
tells us of the yoke and the burden, both 
involving continuance of labor and endur- 
ance, even though both are lightened by 
His Presence, and because of that Presence, 
while the discipline of life and temptation 
is a wilderness, "the desert is made to 
bloom," for " the beloved of the Lord shall 
dwell in safety by Him : and the Lord shall 
cover him all the day long." 

If you spend an hour on the seashore you 
will understand this seeming contradiction 
of rest and unrest, for then you will see 
how, even amid the surging of the breaking 



74 WILDERNESS DAYS. 

waves, there is still a peaceful under-rip- 
pling current. Yes, dear, wonderful as it 
seems, if Christ's Presence be recognized by 
us, this under-ripple of peace is always ours, 
however the upper waves may dash and 
roar. — But — the abiding calm, unbroken by 
either ripple or wave, that, in its complete- 
ness we can only know when at last we are 
safe Home, at anchor, within the Harbor of 
Heaven. 

I used the word crown, in referring to the 
Saviour's call to the soul, and it leads me to 
note in passing that there is danger of mis- 
reading the verse : " Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of life." 
For, if we merely see in the words the 
promise of a crown if we are faithful until 
death, they become discouraging, filling the 
heart with forebodings of failure, and the 
mind with thoughts of self, in place of the 
peaceful assurance of hope, that is a sure 
outcome of trust in Christ ; hence I do not 
think it was thus our Lord meant them, but 
rather as test words, asking, would our faith- 
fulness be steadfast, and willing to endure 
suffering, even agony keen as death, for His 
sake ? If we would, then they are His 



WILDERNESS DAYS. /^ 

pledge of the blessed Hereafter which will 
be our crown of Life. 

This is one of the many places where we 
walk in darkness if our faith only partially 
grasps the truth, that we only are complete 
in and by Him. But all is light if we de- 
pend on Christ for constant guidance, for 
then we do not try to bear alone the burden 
of being faithful, but we share it with Him, 
our Lord, who saves us not only from sin, 
but from its bondage. 

The experiences I mention now may seem 
strange to you, for it is something of a con- 
tradiction, revealing that what is our great- 
est comfort may yet be our greatest humili- 
ation. 

It is that sometimes as we travel through 
this wilderness life, we become disheartened 
from the very fact of Christ's pleading with 
us " face to face." For it brings Him so near 
us, v/e see brought out in clearly-defined 
contrast our own unlikeness to the Di- 
vine Pattern. When it thus happens, re- 
member, this very sight of the All-Perfect 
and our all imperfection is one of the wil- 
derness ways, " to humble us, and to prove 
us "; for it shows what He is, and what we 



76 WILDERNESS DAYS. 

are, making our after conduct a test of 
whether we really are in profound earnest 
in wishing to be like Him. 

But it is humbling, I repeat, dust hum- 
bling, this finding how dull and slow we are 
in responding to His example, and so is our 
wandering from Him. And yet, how we do 
wander, sometimes so far that where the 
light about us has been a clear shining, 
suddenly we find all dim, while a mist, 
caused by our waywardness and straying, 
gathers in thick gloom, like vapor up-rising 
from some sickly morass. And we cannot 
see our Lord at all: nevertheless He is near. 

But the wanderer must pay the penalty of 
straying, and before we find our way back 
to the safe " narrow path," we may have to 
seek and seek, even till weary and footsore, 
the sun beating on us by day, the chill damp 
of night enfolding us with " a darkness that 
can be felt " — and then — for our humbling 
still — we find Him; find He has never left 
us — but we were the ones who turned from 
Him. 

There are other times, when "our Lord 
hides His face,' , not because of any fault of 
Durs, but for the perfecting of our faith, and 



WILDERNESS DAYS. JJ 

that we may be fitted by His dealings for 
the object of them, the final receiving us 
"into glory." " Soldier and Servant" — it 
is a good motto for us wilderness-pilgrims, 
for we are called to fight the fight of faith, 
as well as to " walk in love, serving the 
Lord." And faith does oftentimes demand 
stern conflict, " the soul cannot satisfy itself 
with itself; it seeks some higher service. . . . 
And remember, faith will perish if we do 
not take care of it." It is not something 
we can plant in the soul, and then leave to 
grow. No, it needs the daily renewal of 
self-surrender, and daily seeking after the 
high service and devoted obedience of the 
children of God. If this is your desire, then 
listen to, and follow the "pleading" of "the 
sweet, low Voice that calls us out of our- 
selves, out of our vanities, out of our own 
ease, up to the higher obedience, up to the 
humility of sonship, up to the service of 
faith: that so nourishing and cherishing all 
the instincts that faith sets working within 
us, our faith may slowly perfect itself into 
that love of God which loves Him with all 
its mind, and all its heart, and all its soul, 
and all its strength." 



78 WILDERNESS DAYS. 

And now, dear H , you ask me to tell 

of the special " wilderness " you may be 
called to walk, living as you do a home and 
love-guarded life. It will doubtless be a 
wilderness leading into the realm of inter- 
nal and spiritual temptations, rather than 
by the way of external and material. And 
yet, in meeting temptations, the same com- 
mands apply to both, though looking at 
them from a mere surface glance, it does 
not seem so. I recall once reading an illus- 
tration of this, which will serve to suggest 
the thought, though I cannot give it in the 
exact words used. The idea was in follow- 
ing the subtle working of temptation in its 
mental influence, take but the eighth com- 
mandment as an example, which holds good 
for a hundred other allurements : " Thou 
shalt not steal." Straightway you will say: 
" No need for me to pray to be delivered 
from that temptation, for never, in all my 
life, did I feel an impulse toward dishonesty." 

But look a little deeper, and tell me, have 
you never been tempted to desire to seem 
a little better, a little truer, a little more 
charitable, a little more accomplished than 
you really are ? Have you never given the 



WILDERNESS DAYS. 79 

impression of possessions or position a little 
beyond the honest truth ? And — is not the 
being willing to seem anything which you 
are not truly, disobeying the command, 
"Thou shalt not steal"? — For, are you not 
trying to steal the good opinion of others, 
by giving them an impression of worth 
where it does not exist ? 

Alas, how often we do steal in one, if not 
all of these ways — and others, akin to them — 
without giving hardly a thought to the " mor- 
al falseness " involved — sometimes even smil- 
ing at our own rare skill in putting what the 
world calls the "best foot foremost/' 

Another of these subtle ways by which we 
are often tried is, we resist temptation be- 
cause to yield would lower us in the esti- 
mation of others, not because of the right 
and wrong in question, and hence we gain 
nothing in a moral sense by our refusal; in 
fact, we lose in truth of character every 
time we thus conquer. For, while we may 
gain a certain strength toward resisting the 
evil when next it assails us, it is a mere sur- 
face gain, for "only as we refuse to yield 
because consent is sin in God's sight, do we 
really gain in spiritual strength, and power 



SO WILDERNESS DAYS. 

to close bar the door of our souls against 
future temptations." 

Then, too, we are so wont to forget, that 
what we are to seek by the resisting of 
temptation is not deliverance from the pen- 
alty of wrong-doing, but from the heart- 
sinfulness, which leads us to desire to sin, 
making it even dear to us. How all this 
gives a profound emphasis to the truth, 
"the heart is deceitful. " 

Verily, victory over these subtle tempta- 
tions, which, like all spiritual things, are dif- 
ficult to grasp and hold, demands a keen in- 
tellectual effort, as well as prayerful seeking 
of Divine Help; this you will straightway 
see if you follow but the growth of one 
yielding. For it begins by a mental pro- 
cess, first the wish — and then the rounded 
thought — that reacts on the wish, pressing 
it forward, till desire gains mastery — and 
at last becomes a reality. Hence, to gain 
control over our wishes, is the way to gain 
control over thoughts, and when we have 
conquered so far as to hold sway over 
thoughts, we are well on toward that " great 
city, the Holy Jerusalem,'' of which it is 
written, " there shall in no wise enter into 



WILDERNESS DAYS. 8 1 

it anything that defileth .... or maketh 
a lie, but they which are written in the 
Lamb's Book of Life." 

Truth, honesty of soul — yes, it leads by a 
path all upward, and if we tread its heights, 
even here on earth, we can look on and over 
into " the good land of promise." 

11 O blest the land, the city blest, 
Where Christ the Ruler is confest! 

Fling wide the portals of your heart, 
Make it a temple set apart, 
From earthly use for Heaven's employ, 
Adorn'd with prayer, and love, and joy: 
So shall your Sovereign enter in, 
And new and nobler life begin. 

" Redeemer, come! I open wide 
My heart to Thee : here, Lord, abide! 
Let me Thy inner presence feel, 
Thy grace and love in me reveal, 
Thy Holy Spirit guide me on 
Until my glorious goal be won! " 

But — before we reach that glad, blessed 
goal there are other wildernesses for us to 
encounter beside those typified by tempta- 
tion — and those "other deserts" are so 

many, we will ponder them, dear H , in 

a separate Meditation. 



DESERT PLACES. 



Remember, 

" Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is 
written, He gave them bread from Heaven to eat.*' 

John vi. 31. 

And, 

" Thus saith the Lord, I will make a way in the wil- 
derness, and rivers in the desert." 

Is. iv. 3. 

And the Christ. He took them, His own chosen 
disciples — "into a desert place." 

Luke ix. 10. 



IV. 
DESERT PLACES. 

YESTERDAY we pondered passing 
through the wilderness as a type of 
the soul's encounter with temptations in its 
journey through this world. 

To-day, our thoughts lead to other ex- 
periences, that in their teaching of faith 
and patience, may well be called " desert 
places," and yet by knowing them, the heart 
is made ready for entrance at last into the 
King's own country — the dear Jerusalem 
the golden. 

I need hardly tell you these deserts are 
varied as the clouds that speed between us 
and the blue sky, on an April day, when 
clouds above are well-nigh as many as the 
numberless waking flower-buds below, that 
spring up an hundred to a sod. For suffer- 
ing is the appointed lot of all. And suffer- 
ing ! Who can count the ways by which 

(85) 



86 DESERT PLACES. 

it comes ? Since they are so multitudin- 
ous, only the trials that stand out in bold- 
est relief, will we pause to note. Chief 
among them is poverty — for when one must 
work whether the head be aching, or the 
heart breaking, it makes of labor a " desert 
place." 

Ask the sons and daughters of toil, and 
they can tell you all about it. While as for 
sickness — truly it is a discipline that 
leads "apart into the desert." But, thank 
God, the desert of sickness is one of the 
places where we may feel most sure the 
Christ will come, filling its gloom with His 
Presence. The record of His life on earth 
gives us this assurance, for think of His 
tender sympathy for all bodily suffering. 
And surely the Lord Christ is no less ten- 
der and mindful than the Man Christ ! 
Think how "they brought unto Him many 
that were sick ": how we are told, not once, 
but again and again, " He was moved with 
compassion/' And His compassion, what 
an example it is for us to follow, going as 
it did deeper than mere sympathy — precious 
as that is — for it was blended with the act- 
ive mercy of relieving, — "the blind re- 



DESERT PLACES. 87 

ceived their sight, and the lame walked, the 
lepers were cleansed, and the deaf heard." 

From sickness our thoughts naturally- 
pass on to the desert of parting. " One 
taken, the other left." Ah ! that means a 
wilderness indeed ; only they who have trod 
its desolate way know the barrenness of 
this " desert place." 

And there is the desert of " living sor- 
rows," the over-casting of a sun-bright 
sky, the turning of a flower-strewn path 
into the arid sand of the desert, because one 
we love has fallen from the ways of right 
to wrong, from honor to dishonor. Added 
to these trials are the numberless and the 
nameless anxieties and perplexities that be- 
long to daily life. Conscience has dark 
places too, and remorse is a desert. And 
there are also the spiritual and mental des- 
erts that follow swiftly on undue or self- 
conceited search into the u hidden things of 
God." But of them all the Lord saith, " I 
will make a way in the wilderness, and riv- 
ers in the desert." And yet, before He 
does this, the years of discipline my be long 
as the typical " forty " ! For from His 
Word we learn that trial is meant to be 



88 DESERT PLACES. 

trial, and that it must accomplish its full 
work. Christ said, " I am the true vine, 
and my Father is the husbandman : every 
branch in me that beareth not fruit He 
taketh away, and every branch that beareth 
fruit, He purgeth it that it may bring forth 
more fruit." 

Remember it is not enough to be a 
branch, we must also " bear fruit." And 
then, " the Lord purgeth " — for the sake of 
the " more fruit." Hence we wall have to 
cross and re-cross the deserts appointed for 
our discipline and growth in grace as long 
as we stay in this world. For there is no 
passing beyond tears, no passing beyond the 
need for weeping, till we are called There, 
where " God shall wipe away all tears." 

Till then poverty will be hard in detail, 
sickness will mean weariness and pain, the 
parting from our dearest will be agony, the 
sin of those we love will be cruel as the 
wound of sharpest sword-blade. And yet, 
spite all this, God has a special comfort, 
as well as a special lesson linked with each 
trial, and He will reveal them to us when 
our hearts are ready for lesson and consola- 
tion. 



DESERT PLACES. 89 

Ah! if we only listen for His leaching in 
our keenest griefs, as well as in lesser trials, 
we will find they are in very truth " bless- 
ings in disguise." For, while the Lord 
saith, "I will cause you to pass under the 
Rod," a mercy is joined to that passing by a 
tie close as one brief connecting "and" "I 
will bring you into the bond of the cove- 
nant." 

This being so, dear H , our object is 

to seek how we may enter into this covenant 
bond though treading the preparatory des- 
erts that help to perfect the soul for a Higher 
life. Let us take our place then as children 
under the schoolmaster law first, and then 
faith, for " the law is our schoolmaster to 
bring us unto Christ that we may be justified 
by faith." But, remember, " after that faith 
has come, we are no longer under a school- 
master." What a blessed tender school it 
is by which we of this " new dispensation " 
are trained for the spiritual life. Since the 
coming of Christ and liberty, it stands out 
as something all unlike the bondage and 
rule of the old Mosaic law, as manhood is 
unlike infancy. Still, in a certain sense, 
these days are school days, but the order 



gO DESERT PLACES. 

is reversed — law is still teacher, but Christ is 
the Higher Master, and in His school "Love 
is Law — Law is Love." The difference turns 
for explanation to the continuous spiritual 
growth that has been going on ever since 
the world began. The history of a newly 
settled country will serve to straightway 
make my meaning plain. " In the early days 
law needed to be rigidly enforced, until 
habits and local customs had been founded ; 
but when the claims of law had become 
firmly established, rule in many of its 
forms can safely be relaxed," just as in our 
hearts there is a time when we are governed 
by law. " I will obey, because I must," and 
the blessed aftertime when we act from the 
more noble principle of love and faith, which, 
while obedient to law, has passed beyond 
the need of its enforcement, though not be- 
yond the need of the discipline of love. 

And now let us strive to sum up a few of 
the lessons law and love teach. 

You will remember in mentioning trials 
on the foregone page, poverty was the first 
I noted — and so we will first seek its lesson. 

Canon Farrar writes : " Poverty, self- 
denial, the bearing of the yoke in youth, are 



DESERT PLACES. 9 1 

the highest forms of discipline, for a pure 
and godly manhood. " And he adds, " Hum- 
ble poverty is true wealth. ,, This exalts the 
being poor, but what does it teach ? 

In reply, let us turn again to Farrar ; he 
says : " You have but little of this world's 
goods — oh, be faithful with that little, and 
you will find it more than much. ,, Faith- 
fulness ', then, is one lesson we are to learn, 
and Farrar also tells us — " A poverty which 
scorns luxury, which can dispense with su- 
perfluities, which can find life purest and 
strongest when it is disciplined under the 
beneficent laws of l high thinking and plain 
living ' is wealthier in every element of hap- 
piness than 

" ' Forty seas, though all their shores were pearl, 
Their waters crystal, and their rocks pure gold/ " 

Another lesson obedience to law teaches is 
that, " whenever the labors of life are fulfilled 
in the spirit of striving against misrule, and 
doing whatever we have to do honorably 
and perfectly, however lowly the task they 
invariably bring happiness." For, as- 
cending from the lowest to highest things, 
every scale of human industry worthily 



92 DESERT PLACES. 

followed gives peace." — "Ask the laborer 
in the field, or at the forge, or in the mine 
ask the patient, delicate-fingered artisan, or 
the strong-armed, fiery-hearted worker in 
bronze or in marble, and none of them 
who are true workmen will ever tell you 
that they have found the law of heaven an 
unkind one — that ' in the sweat of their 
brow they should eat bread until they re- 
turn to the ground/ nor that they ever 
found it an unrewarded obedience, if in- 
deed it was rendered faithfully to the com- 
mand, ' Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, 
do it with thy might/ " This is Ruskin's 
tribute to the blessing that is in even the 
poverty which enforces manual labor, and 
surely it proves while certain conditions will 
always make enforced daily toil a deserc, 
yet it can become a wilderness wherein the 
" wayfaring man shall find an highway, and 
parched ground become a pool, and the 
thirsty land springs of water," if the laborer 
treads its path in obedience to the principle 
of doing with his might, rendering faithful 
hand and heart service. 

These illustrations have all been taught 
by law. When we think of all love holds, 



DESERT PLACES. 93 

in promise of blessing and true riches for 
those who walk the desert of this world's 
poverty, we find enumeration save for a 

few beatitudes quite beyond our limits. 

" Blessed are the poor." That is our Sav- 
iour's halo for poverty — blessed ! " Let 

the poor glory in the beatitude of poverty, 
it is a gift of God." And for its peculiar 
trials, Christ's own tender solicitude pro- 
vided. For, in anticipation of the sense of 
" aloneness," that often makes the hardest 
part of the trial of small means, He made 
Himself the companion of those who had 
but little of this world's wealth, and who 
are among its toilers. " Is not this the 
Carpenter? We may indeed be thankful 
that the word remains, for it is full of mean- 
ing, and has exercised a very noble and 
blessed influence over the fortunes of mill- 
ions. It has tended to ennoble and sanctify 
the estate of poverty, to ennoble the duty of 
labor." And for the sake of doing this 
"Jesus Christ voluntarily chose the low 
estate of poverty, not indeed an absorbing, 
degrading, grinding poverty, which is al- 
ways rare, and almost always remediable, 
but the commonest lot of honest poverty 



94 DESERT PLACES. 

which though it necessitates self-denial can 
provide with care for all the necessaries of 
a simple life." 

How love shines through all this — not 
the half-way love we mortals give, but love 
that manifests itself in the closeness of fel- 
lowship, sharing the yoke of poverty, bear- 
ing the burden of labor. 

As for sickness — its law-taught lessons 
are so like an open page, I hardly need to 
sum them up, and yet we must not lose sight 
of these lessons, for when we have learned 
them, the desert of sickness, "that wilder- 
ness and solitary place shall be glad." 

They are lessons that touch different 
notes of discipline ; but the chief among 
them is, the learning submission in the ac- 
ceptance of illness, in obedience to God's 
will. And then come like a troop of 
armed foes the special trials and tempta- 
tions of illness. But, oh, the tenderness of 
this — love comes hand-in-hand with every 
trial and temptation, and we feel this love, 
when we cannot understand. For, " if we 
ponder on the incomprehensible nature ot 
pain, mental and bodily, of its invisibleness, 
ts vividness, its exceeding sharpness, and 



DESERT PLACES. 95 

penetrating omnipresence in our whole 
being, of its inevitable origin, and the in- 
dissoluble link which binds it to sin : and 
lastly, its mysterious relation to the pas- 
sion and perfection of our Lord, we shall 
see reason to believe, that a power so near 
and awful has many energies, and fulfils 
many designs in God's kingdom secret 
from us." 

As for the many different kinds of pain 
that come through illness, one remedy holds 
good, and that is, bear them as bravely as 
you can — not being too eager to seek relief, 
for that is wont to lead to restlessness. 

Bear as silently as possible too, and pa- 
tiently, for that is always possible — and 
strive to remember — for this will be your 
greatest help — you are called to endure this 
physical trial, "as unto the Lord." And 
the burden does not rest on you alone, for 
He Himself " bore our sicknesses." " He, the 
Son of God, became what we are — God is 

with us in our flesh He has that in 

His essential Godhead which need not be 
ashamed to call us brethren : as Love in a 
higher sense than we, He yet can embrace 
in His higher Sonship that lower sonship 



g6 DESERT PLACES. 

which is ours. He is made our Brother, 
cur Brother-Man. All that is brotherly in 
nature — far more, all that is brotherly in 
man : all that reaches out hands to greet 
and welcome us, all sympathy that grows 
up, all encouragement that flows, all help 
that springs to meet our needs : all tender- 
ness, all gentleness, all kindliness, all com- 
fort, that soothes our misery : all pity, all 
compassion, all closeness of heart, all friend- 
ship, all love : all that comes to sweeten, to 
relieve, to support, to fortify : all courage to 
share, all unselfishness, all self-sacrifice, all 
this large brotherliness of man to man, is 
the work of the Son : all this is His prompt 
ing, His ministry, who for our sakes, since 
the children partake of flesh and blood, 
Himself partook of the same : He, the true* 
Brother, Himself, in His own Person, came 
down and stood by our side, and shared all 
our ills, bore all our sicknesses, was bruised, 
was chastised : among us He came in our 
saddest need, and drank of our bitterest 
cup, and was baptized with our secret bap- 
tism that He might bring nigh to us all 
help, all comfort." — Oh, ponder it, dear 
H , " He came, laying His hand upon 



DESERT PLACES. 97 

Our head in sickness, His fingers upon our 
eyes, sighing out His soul upon us, breath- 
ing His peace into us, touching us, taking 
us by the hand as we sink, entering into 
our homes, .... renewing us with the 
power of His love." 

Yes, " there is nothing He will not share* 
nothing He will not comfort." He knows 
our pains, the measure and the number of 
them all, even to the bearing of weakness, 
which seems so slight a thing in comparison 
with acute suffering, and yet — how large a 
place it fills in sickness — what a desert 
weariness is ! — It is a condition, too, as full 
of temptations as the branch of a thorn- 
bush is full of prickly thorns, and it brings 
its own tests and trials, their leaders, the 
impulse to selfishness, and self-indulgence. 
The only way to meet this phalanx of spirit- 
ual enemies that attack us through our 
weakness, is to fall back on the assurance 
that they come by God's will ; they are 
sent as tests of our true and whole-hearted 
submission, and patient endurance is the 
work they demand from us. And if it leads 
to a place hard to cross as the weary stretch 
of a sandy desert — our Forerunner, Christ, 



g8 DESERT PLACES. 

knows all about it, and He will hear when 
we cry, " Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for 
I am weak." If you thus cry in profound 
earnest, even though the weary weakness 
does not leave your poor tired frame, you wil 1 
nevertheless feel — " Though I am poor and 
needy, the Lord thinketh upon me." 

And — the knowing, " He thinketh," it is 
a very restful pillow on which to fall back, 
and it changes the desert place " into the 
garden of the Lord." 

And now, I will only briefly touch in pass- 
ing, on the distressing forms of sickness 
which entail the loss of mental powers. If 
this trial comes to your beloved ones, all 
you can do is to seek shelter in the sure 
hope, though it may not be here on earth, 
yet God will in His own time fulfil His 
promise, and " the Holy Spirit will bring all 
things to remembrance." It is only for now 
that the light is dimmed — just for now, that 
the cloud is passing before the sun ; There it 
will all come right, there will be no clouds — 
shadows will flee away. 

In among the many lesser lessons illness 
teaches, I think perhaps one of the hardest 



DESERT PLACES. 99 

to learn is the cheerful acceptance of one's 
separation from the home circle. Only they 
who have felt this, can estimate what it 
means to hear the faint sounds of dear 
family life — while memory follows its rou- 
tine, the peaceful assembling for morning 
prayers, the gathering around the home- 
table, the familiar exchange of thought, and 
planning for the day's duties and pleasures — 
and one's self shut out from it all, by no 
barrier of distance save a closed door or 
dividing wall or two. This is no very great 
desert, I know —but it makes a stern demand 
on submissive patience. It is hard, too, to 
become reconciled to the fact that by God's 
will one is set to learn a different lesson 
from the dear loved ones of home — because 
life to an invalid is unlike life to the strong 
and well — nevertheless, this trial is linked 
with love — and love reveals new comforts 
and blessings — for there are "desert roses "! 
As for "longings" — words cannot span the 
desert places they stretch over in an invalid's 
days. The longing for a sight of the blue 
sky, when one spends day after day in a dark- 
ened room — for a sight of God's fields and 
high hills — shady woods— a glimpse of a 



100 DESERT PLACES. 

meadow and water-brooks — or even for a 
clump of wild-flowers growing by the road- 
side. There come hours, too, when longings 
crave for still wider out-looks — mountains 
and broad flowing rivers — great lakes — and 
the sea — the wide, free, beautiful sea ! — Oh, 
how we long for them — only the " sick and 
weary " know. But, they are the only ones 
who know, too, " how many of our best 
things we learn in sickness." I copy that sen- 
tence from one who penned a leaflet called 
the " Illuminated Valley " — and close follow- 
ing it, this servant of God wrote : " To me 
it is a new school of theology, or rather the 
higher and more illustrative department of 
the old. I did not know how strong the 
arms are which Christ puts around His sick 
and suffering disciples until I felt myself 
sinking into them for support ; how tender 
the bosom of the Infinite Love, till there 
was nothing else for me to lean upon." 

Surely such an experience is worth the 
enduring of many longings ; and there are 
many more than these few which I have 
enumerated, not the least among them a 
desire for independence that comes with the 
wish for a bit of free motion, even if it be 



DESERT PLACES. IOI 

nought more than the crossing a room, the 
being able to stand before a friendly book- 
case choosing one's own volume. 

Well — what profit comes of all these 
trials ? Growth in grace God grant — grace 
to leave all longing — all restlessness — with 
Him : knowing He will satisfy them if it 
be best for us ; knowing, too, and this is a 
flower of the obedience of faith, that had 
any other way been equally good for us, 
God would have trained by it. Hence, 
our part is not to question, but to obey — 
even if the command be only to " lie still." 

Before leaving this subject you ask me, 

dear H , to give you one word revealing 

love in those subtle and trying sicknesses 
that rank under the name of " nervous 
diseases." 

I remember reading in a volume of com- 
fort for invalids— -a book written, I think, 
by the sister of Frederick Maurice — a 
passage that, I trust, will come to you like 
the touch of a soothing hand when next 
you are troubled by nervous suffering. 
" Do not struggle, for it increases nerv- 
ous troubles fearfully — just lie still. He 
is love, and very pitiful, and of tender 



102 DESERT PLACES. 

mercy. Surely, then, He is grieved with 
and for you — is ' touched with a feeling of 
your infirmities ' — for ' He was in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin/ 
He bore nervous sufferings. How intensely 
He must have entered into them ; every 
nerve of His was pierced, and wounded, 
and stretched. Say then, ' O Saviour of the 
world, who by Thy cross and precious blood 
hast redeemed us, save us, and help us, we 
humbly beseech Thee, O Lord/ ' Fear not: 
He will strengthen you, and uphold you by 
*he right hand of His righteousness/ " 

I would fain linger over still other desert 
places to which illness leads, but space for- 
bids. I would fain, too, give you a word of 
cheer for the wearisome nights appointed, the 
sleepless hoars when you say, "Would God 
it were morning," and yet the morning tar- 
ries. Yes — I would fain give you a word 
of cheer — and lo ! I have done it, for re- 
member that word "appointed" God knows 
and God rules. What a light that knowl- 
edge sends gleaming across the darkness 
and the weariness — in its beams, spite the 
tossing and restlessness, you know the " Ever- 



DESERT PLACES. 103 

lasting Arms are underneath," for He has 
promised to " make all your bed in sickness." 

But how when the day comes, and you 
meet the ever-recurring " What can I do ? 
Must I lie useless hour after hour?" — 

A great help in answering that question 
is to remember you are only commanded to 
do what God gives you strength for, and in 
the matter of "effort" there is always as 
much danger of sinning by overdoing as by 
underdoing ! Then, too, you have a work, 
for there is always the learning of patience. 

But we must leave illness and its teachings 
where " law and love " are so closely inter- 
blended. Enough if we have learned its great 
lesson is obedience, for then we will find help 
in our striving to attain it, from the knowl- 
edge that, " though He was a Son, yet 
learned He obedience by the things which 
He suffered." And if we, too, are called to 
suffer, " it is the will of God," and if cheer- 
fully borne, because His will, we will find 
when we "have passed through all that 
great and terrible wilderness," emblemed 
by suffering and sickness, then " we will 
come unto the mountain .... which the 
Lord our God doth give us." 



104 DESERT PLACES. 

What a blessed sequel to our wilderness 
journey ! Think of the seeing, the longings 
satisfied, when we look up and off from the 
Mountain Height to which the discipline 
of our pilgrim days has led ! 

It will be worth all it costs — all — 

" To rest in trust : O German hymn, 
Fill all my heart— my faith is dim ! 

11 To leave with Thee : in Thy dear hand 
All things I cannot understand. 
To rest in trust : O German hymn, 
Fill all my soul — my faith is dim ! 

" To ask Thee not the when or how, 
With yielded heart to only bow ; 
To find the joy that comes at length 
From leaning sweetly on Thy strength. 

" To be Thy child : so, lying still, 
To rest in trusting on Thy will ; 
No other arm can fold away 
So tenderly from night till day ! 

" To take the peace He daily giveth 
Unto each troubled heart that liveth ; 
However weak to find my share 
Of the dear Shepherd's gentle care. 

81 O rest of trust ! O trust in rest ! 

Sweet German hymn, thy faith is blest. 



DESERT PLACES. 105 

One thing remains for me to add to this 
long meditation ; and that is not an easy 
thing to explain. It is the lesson held 
in prosperit)'. The Old Testament record 
is a beacon-light pointing to this truth. 
" He found him in a desert land, and 
in the waste howling wilderness. He led 
him about, He instructed him. . . . He 
made him ride on the high places of the 
earth, that he might eat the increase of the 
fields ; and He made him to suck honey 
out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty 
rock." " But " (oh, heed this warning if 
you are called to meet the test of pros- 
perity), after it all, " Jeshurun forsook 
God who made him, and lightly esteemed 
the Rock of His Salvation. . . . And when 
the Lord saw it He said, I will hide my 
face." 

Sad as it is, this lack of gratitude — even 
amounting to the forsaking the Lord — is 
wont to be now, as it was then, the afterpart 
of great success in the things of this world. 
It makes one tremble at the very thought of 
great possessions, for our Lord Christ said : 
* How hardly shall they which have riches 
enter the kingdom of Heaven." 



106 DESERT PLACES. 

You will remember, in numbering "des- 
erts/' the parting from our dear ones filled a 
foremost place, as it does in reality — but 
when called to that wilderness "consider in 
thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, 
so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." .... 
And the promise is — even by that way of 
the desert of loneliness, you will be brought 
—if you keep "the commandments of the 
Lord," to "a good land — a land of brooks 
of water, of fountains, and depths that 
spring out of valleys and hills." Yes, if we 
yield our will to God's will — and calmly, 
bravely, cheerfully, tread the path He ap- 
points — all these " desert places " we have 
pondered will guide to the "land of wheat 
and barley, and vines and fig-trees, and 
pomegranates : a land of oil olive and 
honey — a land wherein thou shalt eat 
bread without scarceness, thou shalt not 
lack anything in it : a land whose stones 
are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest 
dig brass. ' 

Dear — with such a prospect — such a hope 
—I repeat — is not the discipline life brings 
us worth all it costs ? 

Think, these verses are types — every one 



DESERT PLACES. 107 

rich with a spiritual as well as a material 
significance ; for in the Bible, metaphor is 
the warp and woof of language. Hence the 
"wheat" stands as an emblem of vitality — 
grains of wheat, as we know, having been 
locked in mummy-cases for thousands of 
years, yet retaining the germ of life, which 
springs up when they are planted in the 
kindly earth. " Olive oil" you know how it 
is identified with " thoughts of peace, for- 
giveness, and charity" — the "Vine" with 
" wisdom and intelligence," and the deeper, 
dearer, more sacred meanings which the 
Gospel entwines about it. The "Iron" and 
"Brass" too, what well-known types they 
suggest of character. In truth there is not 
one of the terms used in these verses but 
it is full of significance — a sort of word- 
picture. 

But to return to the " desert of parting" — 
death here, leading to Life There — before 
we ponder it we will pass on, and find its 
comfort in meditating on " Open Windows." 
— Yes, we will go to the sepulchre, and 
God grant we may find the " stone rolled 
back from the door." 



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T«E MASTER'S USE; MY KING; THE ROYAL INVI- 
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